“I’m just a private citizen,” . . . “I’m not out there saying, ‘Sure, join up the effort, do it from home.’ . . . You might find yourself in legal trouble. You might mess up something ongoing and not realize it,” . . . “I feel it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “If you have something to offer that is valuable or helpful why not offer it? If more people did, can you imagine what a different world it would be?”

At the first FBI-sponsored International Conference on Cyber Security, held at Fordham University in New York City, Rossmiller, 39, said she planned to team with an as-yet-unnamed defense contractor to form a “cyber corps” of intelligence experts who will search out terrorists on the Internet.

“Everybody finally understands what the terrorists have known since 9/11,” said Rossmiller, an FBI counter-intelligence asset.

“With just a few thousand dollars and the Web, terrorists can be more efficient than our own government. And we have to do something about that.”

. . .

“There are a lot of people who can be trained to do what I do,” Rossmiller said. “I don’t want the notoriety or the pressure. I can teach people who will be paid professionals, not volunteers like me.”